Reported By: JI Xing
Translated By: MENG Huan
Edited By: Jonathan Wylie
“This platform can take off from the ground, transform high in the sky, unfold the airbag and form a suspended platform. It will be flexible and convenient for unmanned aerial vehicles to take off and land and may improve attack speed in wartime,” is the description given for the winning entry in the 2nd Feihang Cup National Future Aircraft Design Contest. Under the guidance of Professor CUI Naigang, five students from the School of Astronautics and the School of Software designed “Sky”, a near space suspended platform. It stood out of 532 entries from various universities and won first prize in the 2nd Feihang Cup National Future Aircraft Design Contest.
“This platform realizes the combination of high altitude airship and aircraft, uses a nuclear powered engine, has a short taking off and landing time and a high moving speed, independently completes the conversion between high-speed cruise mode and suspension mode at a high altitude, keeps a long-time suspension and ensures a long-term control of the near space’s air supremacy. It is a highly integrative fighting platform with functions like command, detection and logistics support,” Professor CUI said and then praised the team for their strong sense of cooperation, hard study, solid professional foundation and keen interest in space technology. “Besides, the team has a great sense of innovation. They designed the autonomous take-off and return plan for the unmanned aerial vehicle with aerostat, used structural transformation technology and aerostat in orbit release and recovery technology and successfully completed the design task.”
The contest lasted for almost one year and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation provided each team in the final with process guidance. In the final, expert judges graded all entries according to design ideas, technological innovation, performance superiority, principle conformance, data comprehensiveness, design feasibility and design displays and finally awarded one grand prize, two first prizes, four second prizes and eight third prizes.
